


To Teach is to Learn Twice

by aalikane



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-21
Updated: 2012-09-12
Packaged: 2017-11-10 09:33:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/464796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aalikane/pseuds/aalikane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Relationships between teachers and students never end well. Blaine learned this the hard way once. Has he learned his lesson, or is it all just a little bit of history repeating?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work in progress, even though I have the first 7 chapters written. I've been finding it harder and harder to write this story, and I'm hoping that by posting it for people to read and critique, my muse just might come back to me.

He’s late. It’s his first day teaching at William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. He should have been there over 45 minutes ago, to set up his classroom and to make sure everything was prepared for the day. But Wes and David had come over the night before to try and reassure him that he could actually do the job. He had only earned his teaching certificate a couple years ago, even though he was already 30 years old. This was his first time back in Ohio after leaving high school. It was also his first time teaching students who weren’t too eager to learn. His previous teaching position had been at a private school in New York; however circumstances led to his quitting and having to search for employment elsewhere.

It took a while for him to find decent work. He was already 30 years old, and only had two years of experience under his belt. That’s what happens when halfway through your junior year of college you have a nervous breakdown, and don’t think you’ll be able to make a decent teacher. He was afraid that he might repeat the mistakes that were made against him. It was a reasonable fear, but one that took a long time for him to let go of.

He vowed to himself that he wouldn’t hurt any of his students the way he was hurt. He couldn’t do that to any innocent student left in his care, he wouldn’t – he couldn’t. He would do his best to protect his students from anyone who intended to harm them, which is why when he saw a bunch of what looked to be seniors standing around the dumpsters wearing letterman jackets, with a scrawny kid who looked incredibly uncomfortable, he stopped to ask them what they were doing. It brought him back to his days at Westerville High and he didn’t like the feeling that accompanied it.

“What’s it to you?” One of them asks, and Blaine arches an eyebrow. This kid was gutsy, that was for sure. Blaine had never seen a student backtalk a teacher like that, then again this large African-American boy probably didn’t realize Blaine was a teacher, what with him being shorter than the boy in question and having never taught at the school before.

“Just want to make sure none of my students are doing anything.... inappropriate.”  They all shook their head in unison, a sure sign that something was wrong.

“Nope, we were just talking to the new kid.” The new kid looked incredibly frightened, as if he knew what was about to happen, even though Blaine had no clue.

“Okay then, carry on.” Blaine continues to walk towards the building, but has an uneasy feeling and turns around just as he heard a scream. The guys in the letterman jackets were tossing the ‘new kid’ into the dumpster. Once he was in, they all started to laugh and high five each other. Blaine wouldn’t take this lying down.  He stormed over to them once again.

“Okay, all five of you. Figgins’ office, right now.” He points to the building. “Don’t think about ditching, I have a very good memory. If any of you aren’t there when I arrive, I’ll personally give you detention for the rest of the year.”

 

* * *

_“Dude Blaine, what are you doing?” Wes shouted at his friend who had started running along the grounds of Dalton and started jumping on every piece of cement furniture that he could find. Benches, tables… if there were any teachers around he’d probably get in trouble. But it was fourth period and they all had a free one, so they could do anything they wanted._

_“It’s the first day of school Wes, live a little.” Blaine laughed and both Wes and David just rolled their eyes.  They were used to this kind of behavior from Blaine.  He was really an easy going, free spirit.  He could easily be the center of attention and at the flip of a switch change and be a quiet bookworm in the corner that avoided crowds at all costs. It all depended on his mood of the day. Wes and David had gotten pretty adept at gauging his moods pretty quickly over the past year and a half; they had to or else it would have given them too many headaches trying to work out how to be around him._

_“I do live Blaine, very well might I add.” Wes retorted. “I just don’t have to announce it to the world at every opportunity.”_

_“Your loss.” Blaine quips back and Wes and David just keep walking. “Hey wait up!” He yells for them and runs to catch up to them._

_“C’mon. Let’s head to the cafeteria. The lunch ladies should probably be putting the food out by now, and we can get first in line.” David suggested, and all of them, being teenage boys are completely amenable to that idea._

* * *

He quickly climbed up the side of the dumpster, to help the smaller boy out. “Are you okay?” The kid shrugged.

“It’s not like this is the first time this has ever happened. I’m not exactly new here.” This confused Blaine for a moment, since those boys had described him as a new kid, but shook it off. 

“Here, give me your hand. I’ll pull you out.”

Once Blaine got him out, they walked inside and headed towards Figgins’ office. Luckily it was the first day of school.  Mostly what was in the dumpster was bags full of old papers and shredded files. No food. So it wasn’t hard to clean the boy off of whatever stray pieces of garbage had stuck to him. When they got to the office, Blaine was glad to see that all five boys were indeed waiting for him to get there.

“Figgins, I found these boys tossing this young man into the dumpster.” He placed his hand on the teenager’s shoulder. Figgins looked at the five hooligans and narrowed his eyes.

“Is that so?” Four out of the five of them all looked down at the floor, not daring to speak a word. The last one however, wasn’t so wise.

“He asked for it!” The heavy set African American from earlier defended him and his buddies.

“Are you telling me, this young man,” Blaine looked at him, raising his eyebrow and the boy took the hint.

“Rory.”

“Right, Rory.  Are you telling me, that Rory asked for you to toss him in the dumpster?”

“He was making fun of us, using that weird accent of his!”

“It’s not weird! I’m Irish, not making fun of you.” Rory tried to defend, but it wasn’t working.  The burly brute was just getting angrier at Rory’s brogue.

“Whatever man, you need to speak normal for a change.” Blaine just shook his head and looked over at Figgins who was rubbing his temples.

“Figgins, a little input here would be nice.”

“All right. Mr. Adams, Mr. Karofsky, Mr. Smith, Mr. Murphy and Mr. Thomas you all know that we don’t allow bullying here. Therefore, I have no choice but to suspend you. You will each serve one week in-school suspension. Report to homeroom, and then head to ISS. Your teachers will be informed.” They all grumbled as they left the office, Rory holding back not wanting to leave with them. 

Blaine could understand.  He had been bullied when he was in high school, and the last thing any person who was bullied wanted to do, was be alone with a bully, let alone 5 of them who had just gotten suspended for a full week. 

 “Do you honestly believe placing all five of them in one room for the next week, for 8 hours a day is going to do any good?” Blaine asked, and Figgins shrugged.

“We’ll see, won’t we?”

* * *

_Once they get to the lunchroom, get their food and sit down, they start discussing what classes they have for the rest of the day, hoping that they at least have some in the same class. “I have AP Psych, AP Calc, and Honors English.” Wes told his two best friends, and Blaine perked up._

_“Well we’ve got AP Psych together at least.” He pulls out his schedule.  He knew he had AP Psych since middle of April last year when he had to go through registration for Junior year. AP Psych was a junior/senior level class and he had been dying to take it ever since he transferred in Freshman year. He had to wait and he hadn’t been happy about it.  He loved psychology and couldn’t wait to get started, though he probably knew more than any of the students in his class with the amount of self-study research he had done over the years on it. He probably knew more about Freud than their instructor.  “I’ve also got Trigonometry and AP English Language.” Blaine made a face once he mentioned Trig.  He absolutely hated math and the only reason that he was taking the class at all was because he needed another to graduate and he didn’t want to go for Pre-Calculus, because that was sure to destroy him, and he heard Statistics was akin to murder._

_“I’ve got Psych too.”_ _David said as he took out his schedule to look at, and they all high fived each other, grateful that they had one class they could be together in. Considering they didn’t have any in the morning. “But I’ve got Statistics and Physics.” They all groaned.  Only one class together; this would not be a year they were looking forward to._

_Luckily for Blaine, Psychology was at the end of the day. He got his favorite class and his best friends all in one fell swoop, something he was ecstatic about. He got to the classroom first, and sat down of the front row, eager to see and hear everything their teacher told them. When David and Wes walked in they simultaneously groaned seeing where Blaine was sitting. “Suck up.” They mocked him as they sat down in the row behind him, also eager not to look like a teacher’s pet. It’s a known fact that only the boys who got the class last had to sit in the front row. Except Blaine of course, he was always known as a weirdo, even amongst the Dalton Boys._

_In walked their teacher.  Blaine had seen Jeremiah Walton around campus before. But last year, his hair had been slicked back with too much product, and while Blaine did the same thing- black hair could pull it off, gingers not so much.  Last year he also had a strange “Look at me, I’m a rapist” goatee, but he had shaved it off sometime over the summer, and had let his hair loose. Now Blaine had to admit, he looked hot. Like seriously hot, especially dressed up in the black, tailored suit he was currently sporting._

_“Welcome to AP Psychology.  Psychology is the study of behavior, and the brain that stipulates said behavior.  Our goals are to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases…” He continued with his introduction lecture and Blaine zoned in, latching on to every word. He couldn’t help it he was caught, hook, line and sinker. Not just on what his teacher was saying, but the sound of his voice, the quirk of his lips as he spoke, and his facial expressions as he talked about topics that interested him._

_If Blaine believed in love at first sight, he probably would have called it this, but he doesn’t so he didn’t. Instead he just called it intriguing. He didn’t know much about Jeremiah Walton, but he wanted to.  It showed in his eyes how much he was falling for his teacher in a matter of moments, hanging onto his every word. Anyone who was looking at Blaine could see it. It was lucky he was in the first row, so no one could see his face, except Jeremiah. But when Jeremiah did see it, he grinned._

* * *

By the time Blaine walked Rory to class, and got to his own class, he was 10 minutes late. What a way to introduce yourself to your students.  Luckily homeroom was 15 minutes long, so he still had 5 minutes to take attendance and pass out all the papers he needed to pass out.  Anything leftover would have to wait until the next day.  Once homeroom was over, he started his day.  He was the English teacher, and luckily none of the English teachers currently at McKinley had any desire to teach AP and Honors English. Apparently they had enough on their plates trying to teach regular English to the students who couldn’t stand the class that they couldn’t come up with an Honors and AP curriculum on such a short notice.  Blaine on the other hand, had been working in New York for the past couple of years as an Honors and AP English Teacher and could easily transfer his syllabus and curriculum over to McKinley for those who were interested in the upper level classes.

Most of his morning classes were all Honors class of some level. First period was sophomore level, 2nd period was Senior.  Third period was freshman, but 4th period was when he got to the class he was really interested in, always had been.  AP English Literature. A class that required so much more concentration and dedication than any of the other English classes he taught. As he saw his students enter the room, he was surprised to see Rory enter, along with about 5 other people.  There was an Asian girl who had just finished kissing another Asian boy who Blaine assumed to be her boyfriend. A girl with short blonde hair who looked like all the girls his parents had set him up with as a teenager. He let out an involuntary shiver when he made the connection.  Next to her, was a handicapped student who Blaine could only assume was confined to his wheelchair. The last one, who was sitting next to Rory, was a young man who was absolutely stunning. He was wearing black dress pants, with a white long sleeve dress shirt, and a black vest that made every inch of the teen’s body pop.

Blaine had to take a deep breath and count to ten, because he knew that thinking that way about a student, was not going to be a smart idea. He couldn’t let himself become attracted to a student. He promised himself when he became a teacher, that he would never let anything like that happen to a student of his.  He would never, ever do something so cruel, so heartless. He had experienced the pain of that particular type of heartbreak once before and he never wanted another living soul to experience it either.

He never quite got over what happened to him, never quite was able to look past all the emotional turmoil he put Blaine through. But through all of that, Blaine made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t let any of his students hurt the same way he hurt, the same way he was torn apart and pushed aside like yesterday’s garbage.  He wouldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t.

He looked down at his class roll for the period, and saw that there were only 10 students in the entire class.  That meant that there were only 4 more students that had to show up, a minute after the six sat down two girls walked in wearing cheerleading uniforms. ‘Huh, cheerleaders care about their academics… who knew?’ Blaine thought to himself.  He had never seen any cheerleaders take an Advanced Placement course before, this should be interesting. Following those two, were two boys, members of the AV club, if their clothes and demeanor shed any light onto the situation. ‘This’ll be interesting.’

“Welcome to AP English Literature. If you’re in the wrong class, or you didn’t want to actually read books in this class please go down to student services and switch classes, because this is a reading intensive course. You will be reading over 20 novels between now and May, and I expect you to actually read them, and not use Sparknotes or Cliff Notes.” The two cheerleaders rolled their eyes. “I check those resources when I make the tests, and ensure that none of my questions can be answers with a quick perusal of them, so if you want to pass my class as well as the AP exam at the end of the year, you will actually read. If you leave right now, I will not fault you.” The two cheerleaders looked at each other and immediately without saying anything got up and walked out of the class. “Well now that we’ve got that settled. Today, we’re going to be going over the syllabus, and I’ll be handing out the first novel that we shall be reading.”

“Excuse me, Mr….” The stylish one from Rory’s group raised his hand.  “We kind of, don’t know who you are? Our schedules still say TBA…”

“Oh…” Blaine was embarrassed.  He had no clue that the school hadn’t changed the schedules yet, especially since he had been hired 3 weeks ago.

“Mr. Anderson will do fine, and you are?”

“Kurt, Kurt Hummel.” Blaine nodded.

“Well Kurt Hummel, would you mind passing out these syllabi?” Kurt got up and took the stack of papers out of Blaine’s hand, accidentally brushing their hands together as he did so. Kurt’s fingers were soft, and the touch was electric, at least it was for Blaine. He could write it off as static electricity, but he knew better. There was some sort of primal attractive that Blaine couldn’t hide from. Maybe Kurt felt it, maybe he didn’t. But Blaine had to at least pretend that he didn’t feel it.

“As you can see, this is the list of novels we’ll be reading. Fifty percent of these novels have been on the exam before. The rest are great American classics that any student should have read. If you’ve read them in your studies before, that’s great and we will be able to get through them quicker.”  As Blaine let them read through the list, he heard a couple of snorts.

“Seriously, Mr. Anderson, My Antonia? I read that book in the 8th grade.” Kurt bemoaned.

“Well then you will only need to refresh yourself with it, now won’t you?” Blaine countered.

“It was the most boring book alive. I’ve never fallen asleep reading a book in the middle of the day, but I did with that one.”

“Tough.” Kurt frowned, but said nothing else.

“Good thing Berry isn’t in this class.” The blonde girl whispered, but Blaine heard it. “I’ve read The Jungle before when I was at Fairbrook, we’d never hear the end of her and her vegan ways.” She rolled her eyes. Blaine was confused, but said nothing.

“If there are no more questions about the book list we’ll continue. Everyone go to the back of the room and pick up a copy of The Scarlet Letter. I want you all to read the first 50 pages by tomorrow.” All eight of them groaned. “Get used to it.  This is a reading intensive course, I’m easing you into the workload with only giving you 50 pages for tonight.” Blaine sits down at his desk, and they begin to go over the syllabus. He can’t wait to get into the thick of this class, because reading has always been a passion for him, it was a way of escaping, a way of coping with the tragedy that was his life. He hoped that he could show his students the same thing.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Ever since the first day of class, Blaine hadn’t been able to get Kurt out of his head. His angelic face, his alabaster skin. The way his hair practically floated above his head. Blaine had never been attracted to someone who was over 10 years his junior before, and to be completely honest it frightened him a tiny bit. He couldn’t do anything about it, he knew that. Not even counting the fact that he knew from firsthand experience that relationships between teachers and students were never a good thing for the couple involved, they were definitely illegal.

It was a week later, and Blaine was still walking by the dumpsters every morning on his way from his car, to make sure that no students were being tossed in. He even made rounds outside before class, to make sure because he knew what it was like to be bullied for reasons you cannot control, he didn’t want it to happen to anyone else. Which is why when he saw Kurt standing with the same five guys from the first day of school, he knew something bad was going to happen.

“Hey Kurt,” He said walking up to the six boys. “are you busy?” Kurt widened his eyes and shook his head.

“No, not busy at all, Mr. Anderson.”

“Good.  Then would you mind coming with me for a few minutes?  I need to discuss your assignment from yesterday with you.” Kurt nodded and quickly followed his teacher. Kurt looked back at the jocks and smirked. It probably wasn’t a bright idea, but he finally got away from the bullies for once and he needed to savor it.

* * *

_“Mr. Anderson, could you stay after for a few minutes?” Mr. Walton asked about a week into school. Blaine looked up nervously, but nodded his head and told his friends to go on, he’d meet them at Warblers practice soon._

_Ever since that first day of class, Blaine had been staring moony eyed at his teacher every day, and even though he tried to stop, he couldn’t help it. He fell fast, and hard.  After everyone left the room, he walked up to his teacher, who walked around and leaned up against the edge of his desk. “So Blaine…”_

_“Yes Mr. Walton?” Blaine asked, trying to hide his combined nervousness and attraction._

_“I’ve noticed that you’ve been staring off into space for the past few days during class. Any particular reason?” Blaine furrowed his eyebrows, because that was the farthest thing from truth. He hung onto his every word._

_“I’ve been paying attention; I know what we’re going over.” Blaine insisted and his teacher just laughed. “Oh of that I have no doubt, Blaine.” He tells him, walking closer to the teen. “But you seem to not pay as close attention as someone who is so interested in psychology would.” On the first day of class, they had done an introduce yourself game to the class (really it was just for Jeremiah’s benefit, because all the students already knew each other) and Blaine had said that he was looking forward to this class since he first came to Dalton. “Are you bored with the class? Is it not what you expected?” Blaine immediately shook his head._

_“Absolutely not. I love the class. I’ve just… learned all of this stuff.” Blaine admitted. “I did a lot of research over the years.” He told him._

_“So it is boring to you?” Blaine shrugs._

_“A little, but that’s what happens when you learn this stuff ahead of time.”_

_“So what do you think about when you stare off into space. Don’t lie to me,” He warns Blaine off as he was about to protest. “Today you stared at the bored for 5 minutes without blinking.” He smirked, which meant he wasn’t angry, just curious. Blaine blushed however._

_“Nothing special.” Blaine muttered. Jeremiah isn’t deterred._

_“You know you’re really beautiful, you know that?” He brings his hand up and runs it down the side of Blaine’s face. Blaine leans into the touch, not realizing how much he craved it. “Absolutely gorgeous.” He tells Blaine before cupping Blaine’s face and lifting it, so he could look straight into Blaine’s eyes. After a few moments he slowly leans down and places his lips upon Blaine’s. It’s chaste, but incredible. Blaine couldn’t have asked for a better first kiss. After a second Blaine began to kiss him back, but Jeremiah wouldn’t let him and pulled back just a few inches._

_“Why?” Blaine asked, and Jeremiah smiled._

_“You’re amazing Blaine. Anyone would be a fool not to want you.”_

* * *

When they got to the classroom, Blaine put his stuff on his desk, and Kurt stood around nervous. “Did you actually have to talk to me about something or?” He asked after a couple of minutes where Blaine said nothing.

“No, I just figured you might have wanted to get as far away from that dumpster as humanely possible.” Blaine quipped and Kurt had to reluctantly agree that yes, he did.

“Thanks for getting me out of there.” He said, turning around to leave the room.

“Does that happen often?” Blaine asked, looking down at some of the papers on his desk. Kurt quickly turned around to look at his teacher.

“Hmm?”

“Dumpster tosses, does it happen a lot?  I know it happened once this semester, but I was wondering how often it happened.”

Kurt shrugged. "Last year it was almost an everyday occurrence.  Those of us at the so-called bottom of the food chain, are stuck dumpster diving, and the ones at the top either do the tossing, or don’t get tossed.  It’s as simple as that.”

“Why do you consider yourself to be at the bottom of the food chain?”

Kurt quirked his eyebrow. “Umm, because I’m in Glee Club?” He said as if it was the clearest thing in the world.

“Not all Glee Clubs are at the bottom of the social ladder.”

“True, but most are, and at McKinley, if you’re a part of Glee club, you’re at the bottom.  You can partially redeem yourself if you are a member of the football team or the Cheerios, but even then you’re still lower than low.”

“And I’m assuming you’re not a member of either?” He raised his eyebrows.

Kurt snorted. “I was a member of both during my sophomore year…. Unfortunately neither really suited my tastes.” Blaine was genuinely shocked. He would never have pegged Kurt for a jock or a cheerleader, especially not in the same year. He suddenly had to bite back a chuckle. “What?”

“Sorry, I just got this mental image of you playing the game, and then rushing off to the locker rooms during half time to change so you could be part of the Cheerio’s routine.” Kurt couldn’t help but giggle at the thought.

“No, football was during the fall… cheerleading for me was the spring.” There was a silence, neither knowing what to say. Neither had to say anything, for a couple seconds later, the first bell that signaled everyone should start getting to homeroom sounded. “I should go…” Blaine nodded, sitting down in his seat to go over a few papers he had on his desk. “But thanks again for getting me away from the dumpster. Now if only I could find a way to get away from it this afternoon.”

“What do you mean?”

Kurt sighed. "Every day after school, those same five jocks try to herd us ‘losers’,” Kurt air quoted around the insulting word, “into a circle and throw us all into the dumpster at once. Usually they get about 4 or 5 of us. Sometimes I can make it to my car without getting grabbed, but other days, I’m not so lucky.”

Blaine was getting angry at those boys. What did he have to do to teach them that bullying wasn’t something he was going to tolerate? “And the other teachers here, they don’t do a thing about it.

Kurt shrugged.“To be honest, not many of them know about it, and if they do they don’t care.” Blaine couldn’t believe that none of the staff cared about their students being hurt in this way.

“That’s horrible.” Kurt nodded. “But what if there was a way, that you could avoid the jocks every afternoon?” Blaine asked Kurt, who looked incredibly interested.

“I’m listening.”

“As you know, I give pop quizzes on the reading assignments that I assign the night before, every day.” Kurt nodded, being one of the few students he’s ever taught that has aced every pop quiz so far. “I could use some help grading them after school. You could come and spend some time here after school, and wait them out.”

“You want me to hide from them?”

Blaine shrugged.“It’s your choice, but I could really use some help with those quizzes, and are you really someone who would turn down freely offered extra credit?” Kurt shook his head vehemently.

“No way. I’ll do it, except some days I’ve got Glee Club after school.” Blaine nodded. 

“That’s fine.”

By the time they finished their conversation, quite a few of Blaine’s homeroom students had started to fill the seats and he realized Kurt only had a couple of minutes to get to his own homeroom. Blaine went to write him a pass, but Kurt waved it off.

“My homeroom is just across the hall. I’ll see you later, Mr. Anderson.” Kurt nodded this thanks to his teacher once again and walked out of the room. Blaine smiled, thankful that he’s able to help at least one of his students, even if it’s the one student that has been infiltrating his thoughts for the past week.

* * *

_Lips are pressed against lips. A tall body is pressing a slightly smaller body into a sofa cushion and both bodies were enjoying it very much. Blaine broke his lips away from Jeremiah’s after a few moments and leaned his head on the arm, catching his breath as Jeremiah moves his lips down his face and neck, settling on his collarbone. Blaine was in pure bliss right now. He was in the middle of his first relationship, even though it was with his teacher and he couldn’t be happier._

_The day they first kissed, Blaine went home and his parents thought he was on drugs he was smiling so much. Luckily they accepted his answer of “I got a solo at Warblers today.” Which wasn’t a lie, really. He did, but he got more solos than anyone else in the club, so it didn’t affect him as much as it would anyone else. But kissing his teacher? The same teacher he had a giant crush on? It made him ecstatic. They couldn’t get enough of each other. While Blaine was a little apprehensive about how far they were going, Jeremiah had agreed to take it slow. They hadn’t gone any farther than making out on Jeremiah’s couch, (aside from the one day where Blaine started grinding down upon Jeremiah and came embarrassingly quick. Jeremiah comforted him, but it still made Blaine nervous that it would happen all the time)._

_The first time Blaine was ever invited to Jeremiah’s apartment, was the night that they had their first date. Jeremiah was adamant that no one could know about them, so they had to go 30 miles away from Westerville in order to have their date, but they did. It was a cliché, dinner and a movie, but Blaine was so excited about actually having someone to go on a date with, that he didn’t care about the commonness of it all.  They had seen Titanic just a few weeks after it came out. It was a Saturday and they spent the entire day at the movie theater, followed by a romantic dinner at a restaurant that Jeremiah chose specifically for their date. But when they finished eating, there was still a few hours left and Jeremiah invited him over to his apartment. Not being one to pass up a good thing, he readily agreed._

_They’d done many things since that night. Most nights they just spent around Jeremiah’s apartment, since it was the safest option, but on nights when they were feeling adventurous they would go out. They’d act like a real couple. As Blaine was always more mature than boys his age, them being in public was never a huge deal. As long as they didn’t run into anyone they knew, no one thought any wiser about the two of them together, since Blaine didn’t seem like the normal 17 year old._

_But it’s no good to dwell on the past, even as great a past as they shared, when there was kissing to be done. Jeremiah had been spending quite a bit of time on Blaine’s collarbone, right where his neck meets his shoulder and Blaine was pretty sure that there would be a mark there later. But he didn’t even care. He brought his hands up to Jeremiah’s neck and pulled his head back up to his mouth, where it once again went about sending shocks of pleasure to every point in Blaine’s body._

* * *

It’s been a few days since Blaine offered safety to Kurt, and he had definitely been taking Blaine up on the offer. It was currently Tuesday, and every day since last Thursday, Kurt had been in Blaine’s classroom 3 minutes after the final bell avoiding the jocks who Blaine tried to catch in the act. It didn’t always work. Apparently they had learned to keep a lookout for the only teacher who gave a rat’s ass about them throwing students into the dumpsters and kept as far away from him as humanely possible.  Blaine turned around to pick up a piece of paper off his desk that had a quote he wanted to write on the board for his first class in the morning.  It was rather lengthy and he didn’t feel like writing it out in the morning. When he turned around, he saw Kurt focusing on the quizzes. ~~,~~ H ~~h~~ e was smiling.

It greatly affirmed his desire to go into teaching, that he was able to help even just one student. Knowing he was providing a safe haven after school for one of them who was bullied. He might not be able to help every student individually, but he had certainly attempted to get Figgins to work with him on putting up a gate around the dumpster, so students couldn’t access it, but Figgins wouldn’t budge, “T ~~t~~ here is just no money in the budget for something you’re talking about.  My hands are tied.” It almost made Blaine want to pony up the money himself, but he knew he’d never be able to afford it, especially on a teacher’s salary.

“Here Mr. Anderson, I’m done with these quizzes.” Everything went in slow motion. It was almost like a movie. Kurt had tripped on a chair leg and went faltering to the ground. Blaine turned around just in time to try and catch him, but fell to the ground as well; with Kurt on top of him. It was incredibly inappropriate, and if anyone were to walk in on them, there would certainly be an inquiry as to Blaine and Kurt’s interactions every afternoon, but Blaine wasn’t thinking about that right now.  All he was thinking about, was how right Kurt felt on top of him. The perfect amount of weight and pressure. Kurt’s left leg was pressed against the crux of Blaine’s legs and Kurt’s usually white skin, had grown so rosy it was almost as if he was covered in bright red paint. Kurt wasn’t moving, and neither was Blaine.

Kurt was staring into Blaine’s eyes and Blaine couldn’t quite tell what was lingering behind the gorgeous orbs. Was it embarrassment, perhaps confusion? The fact that Blaine didn’t really want Kurt to get off of him, bothered him less than it probably should.

Blaine didn’t know how long they had been laying like that, one on top of the other.  It felt like forever, in reality it was probably only a few seconds. But it was enough to leave an impression; whether it was a good impression or not remained to be seen. Blaine was about to say something to Kurt, to try and somehow make the situation somewhat more appropriate, when Kurt did the complete opposite.

Now, Blaine had been kissed a few times in his life. Jeremiah was his first, yes. But he had dated a few times in college. They had all been okay, but they never truly made him feel the way Jeremiah’s kisses had made him feel for those precious few months in which he thought they were in love.  They never gave him the giant butterflies in his stomach that flapped around as if they were on speed. But the very chaste, and very quick kiss that Kurt had just laid on Blaine’s lips? It had matched and surpassed Jeremiah’s kisses in a way that he’d never expected.

However, none of his other kisses ended with the other person jumping up and racing from the room as if there was a magnet pulling them in the opposite direction.

* * *

_“Oh God, Blaine.  You’re amazing.” He whispers into Blaine’s ear and the younger boy couldn’t help but feel thrilled that he was exciting his older boyfriend that much. But Blaine’s buzz almost came to a screeching halt when he felt a hand on his crotch attempting to unbutton his jeans._

_“Wait!” Blaine spit out, and pushed Jeremiah off of him, so he could regain his bearings._

_“C’mon Blaine.” He said, putting on all the charm in the world. “I know you want it.” He said leaning back over Blaine and running his hand up Blaine’s leg and resting against his groin. “I can feel it.” He whispers into Blaine’s ear. Blaine gulped._

_“I’m not…” He doesn’t know what to do. He adores Jeremiah, he really does. He wants to be with him, but he isn’t sure if he’s ready to go all the way.  Sure he’s a seventeen year old boy who is always thinking about sex, but that doesn’t mean he has to have it, right? But he does want it. He wants to be with Jeremiah in every way possible. “I mean should we? I mean we’ve only been dating for a few months.” Blaine tries to reason, but Jeremiah rolls his eyes._

_“What does that matter, Blaine? I want you,” he punctuates the remark with a kiss to Blaine’s plump lips. “…and if your…” Jeremiah looks down, and Blaine blushes “…is any indication, you want me too. Why not?”_

_It makes sense to Blaine. He’d never had someone to do this with before. He’d never even been able to think about having sex with someone until recently, and for a while he had always envied his friends who had girlfriends who were, in Blaine’s opinion, sluts and put out all the time. This could be the only time that Blaine gets to experience this type of connection until he gets to college. He definitely didn’t want to go to college a virgin._

_After a minute or two of weighing the pros and cons, Blaine made his decision. “Okay.”_

 


	3. Chapter 3

It’s been two days since… the kiss. Since Kurt accidentally fell on top of Blaine and he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Kurt had felt incredible on top of him and every time Blaine thought about it, he couldn’t understand why Kurt did what he did. Sure they were both gay males living in a rather barren wasteland in terms of other gay men, but Blaine was over 11 years Kurt’s senior. Blaine would never have been bold enough to do something like that when he was Kurt’s age. Then again, when he was Kurt’s age he had already had his heart broken by Jeremiah.  But Jeremiah had taken the reigns in their relationship. Blaine hadn’t initiated a single thing.

He hoped that he’d be able to talk to Kurt about what happened yesterday after school, but Kurt hadn’t come by.  For the past week it was like clockwork, he could almost set his watch by it. Every day at 2:25pm Kurt would show up at the door to his classroom, drop his bag off in the front row of desks and ask if there was any papers that needed grading. If there were, Blaine would already have them ready for Kurt to grade. If not, Kurt would sit down and start working on his homework, just to avoid the bullies; except on days when the Glee club met.  But he hadn’t done that yesterday. Blaine’s room had a clear shot of the senior parking lot, and at precisely 2:23 he had looked up and seen Kurt practically sprinting to his car.

Was it really that embarrassing to Kurt that he couldn’t even talk to Blaine? He hadn’t even made eye contact with Blaine for the past two days during class. Throughout class he had kept his hand down and not said a word. It threw Blaine back to the last few months of his junior year, when he would sit in the back of Psychology and not say a word, not wanting to even be in the class, but being forced to under threat of suspension and expulsion.

Blaine knew he had to talk to Kurt, but he wasn’t completely sure how to get Kurt alone so they could discuss what happened.  He couldn’t exactly talk about it when they were within earshot of students or other faculty members; that would be stupid and irresponsible. But if Kurt wouldn’t come to his room after school, what other way could Blaine get him in private to talk?

It was almost the end of class, and Kurt was slowly packing up his stuff. Blaine could tell it was so he could make a swift getaway out of the room. He wasn’t going to let that happen. As soon as the bell rang, he spoke up. “Kurt, can you stay after a minute?”

Dejected, Kurt slowed down his motions and waited for everyone to leave before walking up to Blaine’s desk where Blaine was waiting for him. “You wanted to see me?”

“I need to talk to you about what happened on Monday.” He said briefly.

“Nothing happened.” Kurt said through clenched teeth.

“You know that’s not true.  I was hoping you could come by after school today.” Blaine looked up at Kurt, who was standing beside the desk, not looking happy.

“But today is a Glee day!” Blaine sighed he knew this was a long shot.  He had no real recourse to get Kurt to come after school. Technically Kurt didn’t do anything to deserve a detention, and Blaine had no reason to detain him from going to his extracurricular activities, but he really needed to speak with Kurt and he would do about anything to make it happen, including beg.

“I know but, I would really like to speak to you, Kurt.”

Whether it was by some subconscious authority-bending will, or actual desire to spend time with him, Blaine had no idea, but Kurt had given in to his teacher’s plea. “Fine. I’ll be here after school. I make no promises for how long I’ll stay.” He whispers and goes on to his next period.

* * *

_Blaine and Jeremiah were both out of breath. Blaine had just lost his virginity and it was amazing. Blaine was lying on his back with Jeremiah on his stomach with one of his arms laid across Blaine’s chest possessively. Blaine didn’t mean to say it. It just slipped out._

_“I love you.” He was post-orgasmic, and couldn’t be held responsible for what he said. But that didn’t help matters much when Jeremiah started grinning; the same way he did on that first day of school._

* * *

It was 2:30pm, 10 minutes after the final bell rang, and Kurt still hadn’t arrived in the classroom. Not that Blaine could blame him. Even though Kurt agreed to show up, he didn’t necessarily _want_ to, so showing up right after the bell, probably wasn’t high on his list of priorities.

When he finally did show up however Blaine was sitting at his desk attempting to grade papers.  He really wasn’t getting anything done. He had to reread one particular sentence five times, because he kept waiting for Kurt to show up, and every few seconds would look up at the door, wishing that he would show up.  Kurt had only been standing in the doorway for a few seconds by the time Blaine looked up for what was probably the 40th time. “Hey.”

“Hi.” Kurt said back, not sure of what to say. What do you say to the teacher you’ve been avoiding since you kissed him two days prior? Was there a protocol for this? How many times has it happened in the past that there would need to be a protocol?

“So…”

Kurt rolled his eyes.  Apparently his teacher had no clue what to say here either. “For an English Teacher you really ought to have a better vocabulary.” He quipped and Blaine’s face grew stern.

“Kurt…”

“Sorry.” Kurt felt slightly ashamed for teasing his teacher, but he was nervous and his defense mechanism was sarcasm.  It always had been, and likely always would be. His father had tried to fix that in him when he was a kid, but it never worked.

“I don’t know how to go about this tactfully so I’ll just be blunt.” Kurt shook his head.  There was no use for tact or bluntness.

“Why bother? I know what you’re going to say.” Blaine raised one of his triangular eyebrows.

“Try me.”

Kurt dropped his bag on the floor and pursed his lips for a second, as if trying to work out exactly what Blaine would say before starting in on a little speech. “It should never have happened.  I’m your student, if anyone found out about what happened you’d be in trouble.  Which since I’m the one who initiated—well I don’t think you should be the one to get in trouble.” Kurt trailed off lamely. He looked down, still not able to look his teacher in the eye.

“Aside from that last sentence you pretty much summed it up, yeah.” Blaine nodded his head, before standing up and walking over towards Kurt, who took a step back, not wanting to be closer to his teacher than he absolutely needed to.

“I was stupid, I know I was. But I couldn’t help it.” He bit his lip and scrunched up his face.  He didn’t mean for that last part to slip from his mouth.

“Why?” How do you tell your teacher that their hot? That they make you melt into a puddle every time you look at them?  He sighed.  He was already in deep he might as well go for broke.

“Have you seen yourself?  You make Taylor Lautner look like a dog.  Pun not intended.” He added as an afterthought.

“I don’t know if I should be offended that you compared me to that Twilight crap-actor or flattered.” Blaine smirked, which made Kurt give a small smile.

“You’re taking this much better than I thought you would.” He said honestly, which made Blaine raise his eyebrow again. How was he expected to react?

“How did you think I’d take it?” Kurt looked at him weird. For a straight guy, his teacher sure was oblivious.

“Like every other straight homophobic jerk living in Lima? Run in fear that the ‘fairy’ is trying to convert you?” Suddenly there was a burst of laughter out of his teacher’s mouth.  Kurt was confused.  Why was there laughter? What about that last sentence was funny? “Why are you laughing?”

“You just remind me a lot of myself when I was young.  Witty, sarcastic, and hating living in a small town while out.”

“You’re gay?” Blaine nodded his head, and Kurt’s eyes widened in shock. “I had no idea”

“It’s not a fact that I regularly advertise to my students, but I’m most definitely gay.” How about that? There was an out gay man living in Lima Ohio that wasn’t Hiram or Leroy Berry.

“Were you the only one out at your school? If you don’t mind me asking, that is?” Blaine shook his head.

“Not at all. I lived not too far away from here actually, in Westerville. I was the only one out at my high school until I transferred to a private school where there was a zero-tolerance no bullying policy.  When I got there, a few kids were out, but not many.” Kurt was stunned.

“Was it around here?” Blaine nodded.

“Dalton Academy. Just a couple hours east of here.” Kurt nodded.

“We’re competing against them at Sectionals this year.” Blaine nodded.

“Ahh, the Warblers. How I miss competing with them.” Blaine did miss singing with the Warblers. He still hung out with Wes and David occasionally, but he didn’t get to see the others nearly as much as he would like. After his junior year, he kind of blew all of them off, and only David and Wes were close enough friends to want to stick around and break through the wall he erected after the Jeremiah thing.

“Are they any good?” Kurt asked, and Blaine shook his head.

“I have no idea how they are right now, and even if I did.  That would be cheating.” Kurt pouted but Blaine shook it off. There was a silence between them, not an uncomfortable silence, but still deafening. Blaine didn’t know what to say. They had gotten off topic, but he didn’t know how to get back on without making it awkward again. Apparently, he didn’t need to, because Kurt would do it for him.

“I just hate having to go it alone.  Before today the only gay men I’d ever met were Rachel Berry’s fathers, and they’re pushing 50.  Not exactly the best people to talk to about what happens at a homophobic public high school.” Blaine could understand that. He was out in a homophobic public high school not too long ago, and understood the implications thereof.  He knew that in the end, it would make Kurt a much stronger person, having to deal with all the crap that the jocks threw at him, even if he was able to hide for a little while in Blaine’s classroom.

“I know it’s hard, but you will get through this.” Blaine placed a comforting hand on Kurt’s shoulder as he saw a tear slide down Kurt’s cheek. It shattered Blaine’s heart to see Kurt, just a small kid from Lima, Ohio having to bear the ugly realities of the real world before he even made it into it. He wished he could do something for Kurt, even if it was something small.

“I just wish there was someone who could be there for me, y’know?” Blaine did know. He knew better than anyone what it was like to go it alone, even for the past 10 years he went it alone. It was hard, harder than anything else in the world to not have anyone to lean on; anyone to talk to when things got hard. He couldn’t give everything to Kurt, but he could give something.

“I’m here for you, if you ever need to talk.” For the first time in two days Kurt looked up and saw the honesty and sincerity etched into Blaine’s eyes. His friends could never relate to him like this man would be able to, even if it was in a purely platonic, teacher-ish way.  Kurt would take it if that’s all he could get.

“Thank you.”


	4. Chapter 4

It’d been a week since the kiss, and Kurt and Blaine had been able to get passed the awkwardness that accompanied such an event. Now that they had talked it out, they were back to their old routine.  Kurt sitting in Blaine’s classroom after school, grading quizzes that Blaine gave his freshman classes earlier that day while Blaine was busy going over his lesson plans for the following week. Blaine was glad that he and Kurt had worked out whatever awkwardness there was because he missed the afternoons that Kurt would spend with him.  He especially missed hearing Kurt sigh in disgust every few minutes after he finishes grading a quiz.

“Do your honors freshman students even bother trying?” Kurt asked, looking up at Blaine who snickered. It’s one of the reasons he gave all these quizzes to Kurt to grade, it saved Blaine incredibly valuable brain cells.

“Why do you say that?” He asked innocently.

“I’ve graded 8 of these so far and only two of them are passing – and they only passed by the skin of their teeth.” Blaine nodded. He really only had a few classes all day where the majority of students actually cared about their grade in English. Both of his AP English classes, and his Senior Honors class. That was it. No one else really cared, and he couldn’t even describe how much it bothered him that his students could just blow the English language off like they do, but he had yet to find a way to get them to care.

“It’s a grammar quiz, were you as… enthusiastic about grammar as a freshman?” Kurt wavered for a moment, before shaking his head.

“Well… No.  But I knew the difference between the three types of twos, theirs and the difference between you, you’re and your.”

Blaine sighed. “Sadly, many students don’t bother learning grammar.  Especially with the advent of netspeak.” Kurt shuttered at the mention of the word that is quickly destroying the English language.

“Ugh, I can’t stand it.  I’ve blocked more of my friends on Facebook chat for using that than I care to remember.” Blaine smiled. Not because Kurt had blocked his friends on Facebook Chat, no he really could care less about that; it was more about Kurt’s desire to not have to deal with the destruction of the English language that caused his happiness in this situation.

“Glad to hear it.” They both continued with their own respective work, not really talking much until Kurt was finally finished with the quizzes. It was about 45 minutes after he started grading them when he walked up to the desk. Blaine was sitting down, and Kurt placed them on the side of the desk.

* * *

_“Jer, can I talk to you?” Blaine asks, when he stays afterschool one day, waiting for all the other students to leave the room. It’d been a few weeks since they made love and Blaine had noticed that Jeremiah had been pulling away from Blaine ever since. He didn’t know why, but he wanted to know. He wanted to know why his boyfriend hadn’t been talking to him as much as he used to, hadn’t wanted to spend as much time as they previously had. Blaine hadn’t been back to Jeremiah’s apartment since that night and it worried him._

_“What’s up, Blaine?” Jeremiah asked, not bothering to look up from the papers he was grading._

_“Are we doing anything this weekend?” He asks tentatively, unsure of the answer he’s going to receive. Jeremiah looks up and quickly sweeps the room to make sure no one was there, even though Blaine had already done so. Seeing that no one was there, Jeremiah sighed._

_“Not this weekend.” He said simply, but Blaine wouldn’t have just that without any explanation._

_“What’s going on?” He asks, taking the pen out of Jeremiah’s hand and capping it off so Jeremiah had to actually look at him. “Ever since… that night we haven’t done anything together and now you’re blowing off for yet another weekend. Is it something I did?”_

_“I can’t do this anymore, Blaine.” Jeremiah tells him, and Blaine goes wide-eyed.  Whatever he was expecting, it wasn’t that._

_“What do you mean, you can’t do this anymore? You started all of this!” Jeremiah hangs his head._

* * *

“Okay, I’m done with these.” He said, before looking around nervously, like he wanted to say something else, but wasn’t completely sure if he should.

“Already? Thanks” Blaine looked up at Kurt, and saw his face. He recognized it as the face of someone needing to talk, but not wanting to bother anyone.  The face of someone who needs to get something off his chest, but doesn’t think anyone would care to listen. “Is everything alright?”

“Remember when you said you’d be there for me to talk to?” Blaine nodded, he always wished he had someone to talk to when he was a teen, but he never had anyone; aside from Jeremiah and that worked out just _swell._ “Well I was sort of hoping I could talk to you about something…” Blaine motioned for him to sit on the chair that he constantly had on the side of his desk, specifically for students to sit in when they needed to talk to him.

“What about?” Kurt bit his lip, unsure of how to talk about what was bugging him.

“Okay, so you know how I’m the only gay kid in the school?” Blaine nodded again. “Well apparently, I’m not.”

“Go on.

“No reaction?” Blaine’s face was a stone. It hadn’t changed its expression since before Kurt had sat down.

“Not until I know which one you’re looking for.” Blaine said, with the same even tone that came with such a stoned expression.

“I kinda found out… by accident…”

“What happened?” Kurt looked away. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about this next part. For one thing, he definitely wasn’t happy it happened, but for another he wasn’t angry at the kid. Okay that was a bit of a lie.  He was angry at the kid for bullying Kurt because Kurt was gay, when in reality he was also gay.

“He kissed me.” Kurt whispered, and Blaine nodded silently, unsure of how to talk about this situation. He’d never been the victim of an assault quite like this.

“I’m going to assume you didn’t want this kiss?” Kurt shook his head vehemently. He most definitely didn’t want it. “What happened before it?”

“I was walking through the halls, looking at my phone.” Blaine gave Kurt a reproachful look. It was a well known rule that phones weren’t to be used during school hours. “Don’t look at me like that, it was after school yesterday.”

Smiling at the jibe, Blaine motioned for Kurt to continue. “Go on.”

“He knocked my phone out of my hands and slammed me into the lockers.  He then walked into the boys locker rooms and I followed him.” Kurt bit his lip, as if he didn’t want to say the next part, even though he was offering up the information voluntarily. He had never had someone he could speak this honestly to, and it made him nervous.

“What happened next?” Blaine prodded for Kurt to continue.

“I yelled at him.  Screamed at him.  Asked him what the hell his problem was.  He wasn’t happy.”

Blaine snorted. “I bet.”

“In the end I told him to hit me.  Because even if he did it wouldn’t change who I was.”

Blaine smiled.  It made Blaine proud that Kurt had the capability to understand that changing yourself to fit someone else’s image of you was never wise.  “Good.  Don’t change for anyone.”

“But instead of hitting me, he kissed me.  He even tried to kiss me again before I pushed him away.” Kurt licked his lip and then made a face, almost as if he could still taste the kid on his lips. Blaine hated that Kurt went through this, but Kurt didn’t seem any worse for wear.

“You don’t seem shaken up about it?”

“It’s not that I’m angry or hurt. I… just.  I realized I did the same thing to you, and I shouldn’t have.  Now I know how you feel and I feel awful about it.” Blaine nodded and grabbed hold of Kurt’s hand.  Kurt was surprised and looked up so he could look his teacher in the eye.

“Honestly Kurt?  Awful is the farthest thing from what I felt at the time. Even now I don’t feel awful about it.”

“What?” Kurt was astonished. He had seriously thought that he forced something on his teacher against his will, just like this bully had done to Kurt. But to find out that Blaine hadn’t been all that against it? That was changing Kurt’s outlook on the situation.

“For what it was, it was great.  But it is different.  You aren’t some scared boy who is trying to figure out who he is.” Kurt had to give his teacher credit for that one. Kurt knew who he was, and knew who he was attracted to, and there was absolutely no confusion within Kurt’s mind. At least not for whom he was physically attracted to.  There was still some confusion as to why he had to fall for his _teacher_ of all people.

“No, I’m just a scared boy who kisses his teachers in order to try and see just how high his embarrassment bar can go.”

“Teachers?” Blaine joked, attempting to get Kurt to laugh.  It brought about a small chuckle out of Kurt, but not as much of one as Blaine had hoped.

“You know what I mean.”

“I do.” Blaine nodded his confirmation and looked into Kurt’s eyes. There was something there that he couldn’t quite place. Respect? Perhaps.  Admiration? Possibly. Blaine didn’t know precisely what it was, but he knew there was something. Kurt must have realized that there was something there too, because he quickly stood up, breaking off the connection made through their eyes.

“I should go.” Kurt said, picking up his messenger bag and standing awkwardly a few feet away from Blaine. Blaine nodded before standing up and smiling at Kurt once again. “Thanks for listening.”

* * *

_“I know, but I can’t string you along anymore.”_

_“Then why didn’t you just tell me?” Blaine can feel his lip quiver and he knows that he’s only a couple of minutes away from bursting into tears, but he holds strong at least until he can get out of the room._

_“I didn’t know how to tell you.” Jeremiah confessed, but Blaine didn’t buy it._

_“You’re a psychologist and you can’t figure out how to break up with your boyfriend? Isn’t that one of your great mantras? Talking about it will make it better? That’s great Jeremiah, a real standup guy.” Jeremiah’s face contorted into something Blaine couldn’t identify. Blaine went to grab his bag before walking out of the room when Jeremiah snapped._

_“It’s not like I was actually interested in you anyway.” He tosses at Blaine who freezes and turns around and stares at the older man. “Didn’t think I’d be using you, did you? Yea it was all just an experiment Blaine. Just an experiment.”_

_“What do you mean?” Blaine took a few deep breaths, forcing his voice to stay even, despite how much it was threatening to break.  He wanted to punch Jeremiah. How could someone be so cruel?_

_“To see how quickly a teenage boy can fall in love. Congratulations it took you longer than I thought it would.” He seemed slightly impressed, but Blaine fell heartbroken. “You’re a good lay, Blaine. I’ll give you that.” Unfortunately for Jeremiah he didn’t see the fist that went swinging through the air a mere second before it made contact with his cheek._

* * *

“I’ll always be here for you.” Blaine said, placing his hand upon Kurt’s shoulder. It was supposed to be a friendly, platonic gesture but to both Blaine and Kurt it felt like so much more. Turning his head to look at the hand on his shoulder, Kurt then traced it with his eyes back up to Blaine’s face. He subconsciously licked his lips and blinked.

Blaine gulped, before very slowly moving his head forward. When his face was just a couple of centimeters away from Kurt’s, his eyes closed of their own accord. Kurt’s eyes did the same, and suddenly their lips were touching, and it wasn’t one sided. They were both equally contributing to this kiss and it was a far cry from their previous one where Kurt ran away moments after pecking his teacher on the lips. A few seconds later, Kurt broke the kiss and exhaled the breathe he had been holding ever since Blaine put his hand upon Kurt’s shoulder.

“Umm…” Blaine was at a loss for words.  Not only did his student just kiss him again, he had kissed back.

“Was it my imagination, or did you…” Kurt asked, before Blaine nodded.

“Yea…”

“Right….” Kurt couldn’t believe what just happened.  He had kissed his teacher _again,_ and not only that, he was kissed back.  It wasn’t one sided, and it definitely wasn’t unwanted. “Apparently I’m not the only one who is attracted to the other.”

“Kurt…” He tried to find a way to avoid the question without hurting Kurt’s feelings, but nothing was coming to him. “…okay yes.  I am. But this is wrong.” He said, but he knew his verbal protests were fruitless. He wanted to kiss Kurt even more now than he did before. They both dove in once again this time Kurt wrapped his hands around Blaine’s neck to pull them closer together.

“So  wrong.  So so wrong.” Kurt says as he rests his forehead against Blaine’s, but only for a few seconds because Kurt wants to kiss those lips again.

“Kurt, no.  This can’t happen.” Blaine disentangles Kurt’s arms from around his neck and steps far away from Ku— _‘no my student’_ he has to remind himself. Kurt is left standing in the middle of the room, while Blaine is back at his desk, leaning against it, trying to compose himself.

 “Why not?” Kurt asked, walking over towards Blaine once again. It seems that since Kurt realized Blaine felt something towards him too, all of his reservations went out the window.  It was one thing to be nervous and shy when you think the teacher you kissed didn’t like it and was completely straight.  It’s another when you find out that he’s gay and actually enjoyed it enough to want more.

“For one, I’m over 12 years older than you.”Kurt shrugged.

“Age is just a number.” Kurt told him, but Blaine wouldn’t have it.

“Second, you’re underage.  If you were 18, maybe I could throw away everything else that’s holding me back but Kurt you’re still only 17 years old.” Despite the crestfallen look upon Kurt’s face, he heard a bit of hope in the way Blaine phrased his protests.

“Only for another 2 weeks. September 27th and I turn 18.” Kurt pointed out. Blaine took a deep breath, wondering if he was really ready to jeopardize his very fresh career for a student. If he was willing to go down the same path that Jeremiah took with him; but he quickly shook that off.  Blaine would never use Kurt for research purposes.  Blaine would never drop Kurt to the curb right after Kurt confessed his love to Blaine.  Would he? Would he make the same mistakes? Could he handle dealing with the same situation he had been in once before?

“Then wait until then.  Just wait.” Blaine told him, his heart apparently making the choice before his mind had a chance to catch up.

“Can I at least get a hug goodbye?” Blaine wavered, knowing that they would be treading on dangerous ground. They already broke about 20 Conduct Rules, what harm would one more do? He opens up his arms, as he steps over towards Kurt who tentatively steps into the embrace. Kurt pulls tightly and Blaine can feel his resolve slowly start to crumble.

“Only two weeks.”

 


	5. Chapter 5

_Blaine drove home in the Mercedes-Benz his parents had bought him for his 17 th birthday just a few weeks ago, crying the entire time. He couldn’t believe what happened. It crushed him, knowing that everything he did with Jeremiah was a joke, for nothing. Jeremiah didn’t even take Blaine’s feelings into account, and the moment he stepped inside his house he started to cry. He fell back against the front door and dropped down to the ground. He sat there for who knows how long, puddling in a pool of his own tears. _

_He loved Jeremiah, he really did. He loved his looks, his personality (or what Blaine had seen of his personality, from what he learned today he had faked a good portion of it), his taste in music, and movies. He loved how Jeremiah always made him smile, and he loved how Jeremiah was intelligent.  He wasn’t like most of the idiots in Ohio. Sure there was a better crop of guys at Dalton where he attended, but outside of his little haven of No Tolerance, most of them were born in the shallow end of the gene pool and thus looked at him with derision and scorn._

_When he finally pulled himself up and dragged himself into his bedroom on the other side of the house, it was already 5 o’clock. He wasn’t hungry. He wasn’t thirsty. He wasn’t in the mood to do much of anything.  Luckily for him his parents were out on a business trip, so he wouldn’t have to deal with any concerned parents and their awkward queries. But that one comfort did nothing to quell the pain that was in his heart._

* * *

They hadn’t kissed again since Monday.  It was killing Blaine being so close to Kurt but not able to touch him.  He thought it would be easier.  He had gone years not touching or kissing anyone, but being in Kurt’s presence had this effect on Blaine that turned him into a mess.  He was back to being a teenage boy again, it confused him.  He hadn’t felt like this since he was 16 years old and in a very wrong and very forbidden relationship with Jeremiah.  Could he really afford to get into the same situation once again?

Every piece of information that he learned about Kurt made him fall deeper and harder. His favorite movie and books (Breakfast at Tiffany’s and _The Giver_ from when he was in middle school). The fact that Kurt both fit the stereotype by loving Broadway and smashed it to pieces by holding the record at McKinley for the fastest reassembly of a carburetor… even the Shop Teacher couldn’t do it faster.

“What about your favorite book?” Kurt asked and Blaine groaned.

“How can you ask that of me? I will never be able to choose.  I have favorites within specific genres, but I’d never be able to choose just one overall.”

Kurt chuckled at the very cliché answer given. “Fine, fine.  Favorite fantasy book.” Blaine took a deep breath, and thought for a moment before finally deciding on a series of books.

“I know it’s a cliché but I’m going to have to say the Harry Potter series.”

They were having another one of their after school secret get to know each other sessions.  If anyone walked into the room, Blaine would be busy reviewing paperwork Figgins sent to the staff as a whole that morning, and Kurt would be reading the latest book that Blaine assigned for class.  In the meantime they both used it to learn as much about the other as they could. They couldn’t physically be together just yet, but that didn’t meant they couldn’t lay out the groundwork for if and when they could be.

“Really?”

Blaine nodded. “Call me crazy, but I fully believe that the Harry Potter books are the sole reason that your generation’s literacy rates aren’t as low as they could have been.”

“Sad fact,” Kurt agreed, having seen how his friends and classmates didn’t enjoy reading and avoided it at all costs; it saddened him because he had always loved to lose himself in a good book. “Not for me though, I’m pretty sure if you went to Lima Elementary, there would still be my name printed neatly in pencil on the borrower’s slip in every Hardy Boys book available.”

“Glad to hear someone didn’t mind reading as a kid. I’m always relieved when someone says they would rather read than watch TV with their friends as a kid.” Kurt looked away.  There was something he was holding back. “What’s wrong?”  Kurt sighed.

“I kind of didn’t have a choice in the matter.  It was either learn to enjoy reading on my own, or be bored all the time.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t really have friends growing up.  None of the boys wanted to play with me because I was too ‘girly’ and the girls still considered me a boy with ‘cooties.’  It wasn’t until high school that I actually made any real friends.”

“That’s horrible.” Blaine tried to console Kurt who shrugged it off.

“I really don’t care about it anymore.  It hurt at the time, but I’m over it. I’ve got some great friends now and a fantastic brother; and who knows in a week and a half I might even have a bit more.” Kurt looked coyly at Blaine who grinned.

“You may indeed.”

* * *

_It’d been a full week since they had broken up, Blaine refused to use the term dumped, with Jeremiah.  It felt too needy, too pitiful and he didn’t want those words to be associated with him, though his actions spoke otherwise. He hadn’t left the house since; barely even leaving his bedroom, except to get something to eat and to use the bathroom.  He kept skipping school, and everyone at Dalton was starting to get worried about him. The faculty would call home, but he wouldn’t answer when the phone rang, and let it go to the answering machine. His friends were getting worried about him. Incredibly worried which is why when they all sat around at Warblers’ practice to determine which one of them would go over to Blaine’s house to confront him, Wes was volunteered for the honor._

_Ding Ding_

_Wes had rung the bell at least 5 times, but there was no answer.  He could see that there was a light on in Blaine’s room. Sighing, Wes went around to the side of the house, and picked up the fake rock, that was home to a hide-a-key. The Andersons had told him and David where it was over a year ago.  They had never a need to use it before now, but enough was enough. He unlocked the front door and marched straight into Blaine’s bedroom not bothering to knock. The sight before him however, was not what he was expecting._

_It appeared that Blaine hadn’t bathed in days. His hair was disgusting with matted hair gel and there were food wrappers littered all around the room. Clothes were strewn around the room as if Blaine hadn’t done laundry in over a month. He saw Blaine was curled up on his bed with a book, reading intently, not paying attention to his friend who had just walked into the room.  “Blaine?” He asked, but Blaine didn’t respond. Wes tried again, this time, walking over to the bed, carefully not to stop on any food crumbs or bugs, because there were a few of the creepy crawlies on the ground. “Blaine, what’s wrong?”_

_“Go away, Wes.” Blaine said, not looking up from his book. Instead of following through on the request of his best friend, he took the book out of Blaine’s hand and held it out of reach._

_“What’s going on, Blaine?”_

_“Nothing, nothing is going on!” He says with a firm resolution, before getting up from the bed and pulling another book off his bookshelf, and flopping down onto his beanbag chair. Wes sighed._

_“Blaine, c’mon tell me. You only get like this when something horrible happens. You haven’t gotten like this since last year when…”_

_“No one died Wes. Least of all my already deceased grandmother.” Blaine snaps before focusing back in on the book he had opened up to a random page and started to read. He’d already read every book on that particular shelf so it wouldn’t matter where he started from._

* * *

About forty minutes later, they had abandoned all pretenses of work and Kurt was just sitting in the chair next to the desk and they were busy talking about something Blaine saw on TV the night before. Kurt apparently wasn’t too interested in the topic, because his mind came up with an idea and wanted to test to see how far he could go. He placed his hand upon Blaine’s knee; Blaine just looked at it curiously, but said nothing. As Blaine continued to talk however, Kurt slowly began to move his hand higher, which is when Blaine realized what Kurt was doing.

“Oh would you look at the time? It’s already 4:30.” Blaine said, causing Kurt to pout.

“You’re not trying to get rid of me, are you?” Kurt questioned, moving his hand up even further on Blaine’s leg.

“Kurt…” Blaine grasped Kurt’s hand and removed it from his body.  Kurt sighed.

“I know.”

It was a sign that their discussion for the day was over, that they had to leave.  Kurt stood up and packed away the books he had taken out.  Blaine began to do the same.  As Kurt picked up his copy of _An American Tragedy_ he accidentally knocked his day planner to the ground.  Blaine quickly bent over to retrieve it for him.  The page it opened to when it fell was the following week.

Right there, plain as day was the word ‘B-Day’ written in bold red letters on September 27th’s date.  Kurt looked up at Blaine’s smiling face and said “It doesn’t stand for Birthday y’know.”

Blaine smiled turned into an even bigger grin.  He handed the book back to Kurt who was just about ready to go.  Blaine pulled him into an embrace, something they’ve done every day since they had their second kiss, and he placed a soft kiss on Kurt’s head.

“I know.”

* * *

_“Then what happened? Because last week you were happier than I’ve ever seen you.  Now you’re moping and not even coming to school or to Warblers’ Practice? What gives, man?” Blaine sighs._

_“Why do you have to butt in?” He glares up at Wes. “If I wanted your help, I’d ask for it.” Blaine snaps. Resigned, Wes decides that pushing it any more probably wouldn’t help matters._

_“Fine. I’ll go.  I just thought you’d want your homework. You’ve missed quite a bit. I got it from all your teachers before I left today. Mr. Walton asked me to remind you that your paper on Freud was due yesterday.” Wes dropped the pile of homework on Blaine’s desk and began to walk out when he heard a sob come from his best friend.  He turned around and saw Blaine in tears. “Blaine?”_

_“Oh God Wes…” The dam breaks, and everything that happened between him and Jeremiah spilled out like word vomit into the air. Wes sits by patiently listening to everything that Blaine has to say, unsure of how to react. But when he hears that Jeremiah used Blaine for an experiment, he couldn’t be more outraged._

_“That son of a bitch. Just today he was talking about Informed Consent of patients in psychological studies.” Wes was seeing red. How could this man, this psychologist, this **teacher** do something so horrible to such a nice guy as Blaine?_

_“Just forget it, Wes. I don’t want to know what he talked about today. In fact, I wouldn’t mind forgetting him all together.” He says, but he doesn’t mean it. Because as horrible as Jeremiah was to him, part of him is still in love with him, part of him will probably always be in love with him, and it hurts Blaine just to think about that fact._

_“Blaine, you need to report this.”_

_“Wes, I was in a relationship with my teacher.  He’s not the only one who could get in trouble here.” Blaine points out and Wes has to concede that there’s truth to that statement. While there was a clause in the Teacher’s Code of Conduct at Dalton, that they would not date students, there was also a clause in the Student’s Code of Conduct that they would act appropriately in all situations, and sleeping with your teacher, even if it wasn’t to get better grades, certainly didn’t fall under that prerequisite._

_“He still needs to be punished.” Wes says and Blaine shrugs._

_“I just don’t want to deal with him.”_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudo's and comments are always appreciated :)


	6. Chapter 6

It was Saturday, September 24 and Blaine was desperate for coffee. He hadn’t gone shopping in about a week, and he had run out of the tasty brewed beverage the morning before. If he didn’t get some within the next two hours, he was most certainly going to go into withdrawals, so he grabbed his keys off the hook next to his front door, and he left his apartment. He knew where he was going: The Lima Bean, the only good coffee shop in Lima. Sure there were Starbucks around, but they didn’t have the same feel, or the same price as the Lima Bean, so he usually refused to go to one unless absolutely necessary.  Luckily for him the closest Starbucks was a mile farther than the Lima Bean, so he didn’t usually worry about it.

As he pulled into the parking lot of the coffee shop, he noticed one thing: it was packed. There were absolutely no parking spaces anywhere. He couldn’t find a single one, even driving around it for 10 minutes. Sighing, he left and parked a couple of blocks away and started to walk. When he got inside, there was a line of about 5 people waiting to get their orders, and luckily no one who hadn’t ordered yet.  He gave his order to the barista (“I’ll have a medium drip?”) and looked around.  There were no seats available. Every table was filled with college students or old couples enjoying their day. He groaned, just what he needed.

He had just decided to grab his coffee and go back home, when he saw a person who was engrossed in a book sitting at a table for two. Blaine smiled. This was the first time he had seen Kurt off school grounds, and he wanted to make the most of it. When his coffee was ready, he picked it up and quietly sat down across from Kurt who was engrossed in a book. Blaine looked curiously at the cover and saw that it was a play: _Romeo and Juliet._ Blaine hadn’t assigned that one for class yet, as they had just finished up a test the day before. He wanted to give them the weekend off, but apparently Kurt didn’t care to and was going ahead with the reading un-coerced.

* * *

_It was the first day of Blaine’s freshman year of college at NYU. He was ecstatic. He was so ready to start anew and leave Dalton behind.  Leave all the pain and all the hurt that plagued him for the past year and a half. Life after junior year had been horrible, especially since Jeremiah had just upped and left the school for another position somewhere else.  No one knew where. No one knew why.  Blaine had his suspicions, but was able to get nothing confirmed. After the breakup, Blaine’s grades started to drop dramatically; in AP Psych anyway.  He was always skipping, and sitting in the back of the room, so far from Jeremiah when he absolutely had to be in the classroom. He skipped so much that when he took the AP test that May, he ended up getting a 1, which as anyone who has ever taken an AP test knows, is not a good grade._

_This is why he was currently sitting in freshman psych. He learned from last time, not to sit in the front of the classroom, especially not knowing who the instructor was going to be, so he sat somewhere in the middle. The instructor hadn’t been announced during Registration, and even this morning when he went on the school’s website to see, it still said TBA.  He was hoping it was going to be a female teacher.  Someone he could talk to about psychology and not get caught up in another romance like he did… the last time he dealt with psychology._

_He overheard some of his fellow classmates talking about the instructor. Apparently they know who it was._

_“He has the most gorgeous hazel eyes; I’ve never seen anyone with such beautiful eyes.”_

_“Forget the eyes, have you see his hair? It’s a mop of wavy red hair that on any other person would look horrible, but he makes it work.” The two girls were gushing over him, and Blaine takes a deep breath. So apparently their teacher was a guy.  Okay he could handle that._

_“Excuse me?” He said, interrupting the two girls, they looked back at him, one of them smiled up at him. “You know who is teaching this class?” They both nod._

_“Yea his name is… Well that’s him.” She points to the front of the class and Blaine’s worst nightmare has come true._

* * *

Kurt kept on reading for the next 10 minutes, not realizing that his teacher, and potential boyfriend was sitting in front of him, smirking the entire time. Once he paused to grab a sip of his coffee, he noticed a head of dark hair out of the corner of his eye.  “What are you doing here?  What if someone sees?” He whispers harshly, looking around and becoming increasingly worried with every passing second.

“Relax, Kurt.  Look around, every other table is occupied.  Besides if anyone asks we can just say we’re discussing Romeo and Juliet.” Blaine placates the younger man. Kurt just rolls his eyes, unable to figure out how anyone wouldn’t be able to see through that ruse.

“You really want to discuss class right now?” Kurt raised his eyebrow, which made Blaine chuckle.

“Not particularly, but if anyone were to ask, then we wouldn’t be lying.” Blaine pointed out, which Kurt had to give him credit for, so they discussed the play for a few minutes.  Blaine finding out that Kurt had read the play 3 years ago for fun, and was just rereading it now to refresh his memory of it for class; even though Blaine had yet to assign it. Blaine mentioned that he had actually planned on giving it out on Monday which Kurt thought was ironic, but they shrugged it off.  They continued talking about it for a little while; mostly about which characters they liked and why. Kurt preferred Juliet, though immature, she knew what she wanted. She knew she didn’t want to marry Paris, and even though she explained it away as not wanting to marry period, really it was her disdain for Paris that caused her dissention.  Blaine preferred Romeo, the brave and quick witted man who showed no fear in his attempt to woo the young maiden. The irony of their situations was missed by neither of them.

It was now rounding out 2 o’clock and they had been sitting there talking for over 45 minutes so far. It was the first time they hadn’t had the reminder of their social inequalities forced in their face. Kurt didn’t have to remind himself that he couldn’t speak his mind while at school, and Blaine never once had to remind himself that the man sitting in front of him was 13 years his junior. Well, soon to only be 12 really, which Kurt reminded him.

“So, it’s only 3 days till my birthday.” Blaine nods, because the date has been engrained in his head, and he’s held a mental count down for the past two weeks.

“I know.”

“And you were serious about having to wait until my actual birthday?” Kurt asked in a hushed whisper. Blaine hangs his head and inhales deeply. How is he supposed to tell Kurt the real reason he insisted on the waiting period? How was he supposed to get Kurt to understand?

* * *

_“Oh God no.” Blaine whispers. Both girls look at him strangely before turning around to pay attention to their instructor: Jeremiah Walton. Blaine couldn’t believe what was happening to him. The man that broke his heart—no, he didn’t just break Blaine’s heart, he ripped it out of his chest and used it for skeet shooting, was standing right in front of the room with a classroom full of eyes trained on his every move._

_“Welcome to Psych 101.” He says to everyone, and they all take out notebooks to get ready for class. “I’m going to take roll, and then we’ll begin.”_

_Blaine’s name would be near the top of the list, if not right at the top. This wasn’t good. Blaine’s named was third down on the list. After Jeremiah checked off Mary Albano as being present, he stopped for a moment and asked for “Blaine Anderson?”_

_Blaine steadied himself and tried to say “here” without any cracks to his voice.  It didn’t work._

_This was the worst thing that could possibly have happened to him right now. Teaching his class once again, was the man who saw him at his most vulnerable. The man who made him so vulnerable. The man who used him for both business and pleasure at the same time with no regard to Blaine’s emotional wellbeing. Blaine gulped as Jeremiah went on to the rest of the students on the roll._

_What was Blaine to do? He couldn’t just run out of the classroom.  He didn’t want to make a scene.  He couldn’t just sit there and pay attention to Jeremiah’s lecture, could he? Was it physically possible for him to sit there and listen to Jeremiah lecture for 90 minutes, without bursting into tears, or throwing up? Even though it had been over a year and a half since…it still affected Blaine horribly. He couldn’t think about Jeremiah without tearing up.  He couldn’t go more than a couple of days without thinking about him at all, and even those gaps were few and far between._

_So he sits there.  He does nothing.  He stares off into space, and does his best to drown Jeremiah out, intent on dropping this class the moment he was able to leave because there was no way he could last an entire semester this way._

* * *

“Kurt…”

“Blaine…” He bit his lip, because hearing his name from Kurt’s lips was like magic to his ears, it almost broke all of his self control and he wanted to just throw all of his preconceived notions of how their relationship would go out the window.

“Waiting until your birthday wasn’t just something I insisted on for my benefit, Kurt.” He whispered, not wanting anyone to overhear. Kurt looked at him curiously, unsure of what Blaine meant by that.

“And that means what, exactly?”

“I wanted to make sure you had time to think things through, to make sure that getting into a relationship with me is really what you want. Trust me, getting into a relationship with someone so much older isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, I know.”

“Are you trying to discourage me, or yourself?” Kurt asked, grabbing the book off the table, and picking up his coffee before standing up.

“I’m trying to do the right thing here, Kurt. I don’t want you to regret anything.” Kurt shook his head, unable to believe what he’s hearing.

“Blaine, I’m 18 years old,” he ignored the part about where he wasn’t 18 for another three days. “… and I may be young, but I know what I want. Do you?” With that he walked out of the coffee shop, calmly, but still bitter about Blaine’s insistence that they shouldn’t do what they were both desperate for.

Blaine was left sitting there to think about just what it was he wanted. He liked Kurt, he really did. But was he willing to go through another relationship as rocky and unstable as the one he went through in high school? Because that’s exactly how this one would be. It would be horrible for both of them if anyone found out about it, and even if no one found out about it, it would still make one of them, if not both miserable when it ultimately came time for it to end.

* * *

_When he gets back to his dorm later that night, Wes is there, waiting for them to go to the dining hall, since it was almost 6 and they were both still boys, always hungry. But when Blaine entered the room, Wes noticed something was wrong.  Blaine was pale white._

_“Dude, what’s wrong?”_

_“Umm, I just saw the last person on earth that I would ever want to see.”_

_“Jessica Simpson?” Wes asked sardonically, but Blaine shook his head._

_“No, Jeremiah.” He gulped, Wes looked at him questionably.  Having never referred to his teacher by his first name, it took a minute but he went wide eyed._

_“What do you mean? Where?”_

_Blaine collapsed on his bed. “He teaches here, at NYU. Oddly enough, my Psych 101 course that I just got finished dropping.” Blaine pulled his pillow over his face not knowing what the hell was going on with his life._

_“This isn’t right.  He shouldn’t be teaching.”_

_“No one knows what’s going on, Wes. No one knows what happened, so why the hell wouldn’t he be able to teach?” Blaine pulls the pillow so that it covers his mouth and he screams. “This is unbelievable.”_

_“Well at least you won’t have to deal with him this semester.” Blaine sits up and nods._

_“That’s a relief at least. Doesn’t mean I won’t see him on campus, or around the city or…” Blaine was starting to get choked up and Wes got up and sat down on Blaine’s bed beside him and put an arm around his best friend who was quickly getting too worked up._

_“It’s going to be okay Blaine. He can’t do anything to you anymore.”_

* * *

When Blaine got back to his apartment, the door was unlocked. It alarmed Blaine a tiny bit, but not as much as it would others.  His friends Wes and David frequently came by to ‘see’ him, when really it was to check in on him and see how he was doing. They would use a spare key that he kept in his mailbox. He opened the door and saw Wes sitting at the kitchen table, with the kitchen counter’s TV on. Blaine breathed a sigh of relief. “Wes, how many times have I told you, if you’re going to break into my apartment, at least lock it up when you close the door, that way when I come home before you leave, I don’t think I’ve been robbed.” Wes just rolled his eyes and got up to greet his friend.

“Hello Blaine.”

“What are you doing here, Wes?” Blaine asked, as he sat down in the seat opposite the one Wes had been sitting in.

“I’m worried about you Blaine, David is too. All you ever do is work and spend your nights at home alone.  You need to go out and meet people Blaine.” Blaine sighed. Wes was early this month.  At the beginning of every month Wes or David would come over and try to entice Blaine to go out to a bar with them to try and meet someone. They’ve even tried dragging him to the local gay bars in Lima, but it never worked.  Blaine hated going to them as much as he hated being told he needed to date.

“Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine.  I wasn’t sitting around my apartment today, was I?” He tried to prove to his buddy that he didn’t need to make new friends, or date but it was a lame attempt, they both knew it.

“It’s only 4 o’clock! What would you do if I didn’t come over?” Blaine thought about it for a moment, and shrugged.

“I don’t know.  Read, watch a little TV.  Cook dinner, all normal things, Wes.”

“All normal things for a 60 year old confirmed bachelor.” Blaine groaned.

“I’m fine, Wes.” He said a little more forcefully, but Wes didn’t back down.

“No, you’re really not.  You need to go out and meet someone.  You haven’t seriously dated since Jer—“

“Don’t say his name, in my home.” Blaine warns Wes, who shrugs.

“Well I was going to say Jerkface, but okay.” This made the tips of Blaine’s lips turn just slightly upwards. “I’m worried about you, man.”

“I’m fine, seriously. I have no desire to go out and bump and grind up against men I’ve never met before in my life, only to realize that all they want is a quick fuck in the bathroom and then I’ll never see them again. I’m fine doing what I’ve always done.”

“So you enjoy being alone?” Blaine almost growled out his frustration because he was really starting to get angry with this conversation.

“I’m not alone. Besides... I have sort of met someone.” Blaine was surprised when he said this, because he wasn’t planning on telling Wes, or really anyone about what was going on between him and Kurt.

“Really? Is he human?” Wes quipped which Blaine laughed at. It was nice to laugh.

“Of course he’s human.  We’re just taking things slow.  Neither of us wants to rush into anything.” Wes was grinning from ear to ear. He was so ecstatic for his best friend, because he had watched Blaine go through depression after depression between high school and college, then dropping out of college and starting up again. It took forever for Blaine to finally get back on track, and he loved that Blaine had found someone.

“Where’d you meet him? At work?” Wes raised an eyebrow. “Got an office romance going on?” Blaine couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of dating one of his colleagues; but then again dating a student is even worse of an idea even though that’s what this really as about.

“You could say that.”

“This is great Blaine! When can I meet him?” Wes asks, and Blaine shakes his head vehemently. He has no clue if and when Wes will ever meet Kurt. It certainly won’t be for the next 9 months, because the last thing he needs is for Wes to find out that he’s dating a student.

But he’s not dating a student, not yet anyway, and that’s when it hits him. He might have been trying to push Kurt away from him, trying to make Kurt see the dangers in a relationship between them, but it was foolish. Kurt wanted him, and there was no denying it.  Blaine wanted him as well. The realization made him smile.

“When I’m sure the relationship is going to work.  I don’t want you scaring him away.” Blaine says, still smiling.

* * *

It was Monday and Blaine’s AP English Literature class had just begun. Once they are all in their seats, he walks to the back of the room, and picks up the books he has stacked there. “For the next week, we will be reading _Romeo and Juliet_. I want you all to open to Act I, scene i, and we can begin.” When Kurt gets his book he opens up to the page indicated and when he does, a folded up piece of paper falls out. He looks at it, before opening it up and reading it.

_I know what I want. 453-378-5371_

He smiles to himself, and looks down at his book when Quinn looks over at him and asks “What have you got there, Kurt?”

Kurt just looks at her and shrugs. “Just a piece of paper left in the book from last year.” She accepts that answer, but Kurt sneaks a quick look at Blaine who winks at him, before refolding the paper up and slipping it into his pocket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a hidden messages in Blaine's phone number.   
> First person who messages me (either through LJ, Tumblr, S&C, or FF.net) With what it says, will get to read the next chapter a full two days before anyone else. (You must be a registered user on one of the four sites, so I can actually send it to you. Anon's won't receive anything.) LJ/FF.net/S&C: Aalikane, Tumblr: aalikane88.
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank disneyandhotsauce over at tumblr for beta'ing this chapter for me. :)
> 
> I'm aalikane88 over on tumblr, if you have any questions about the future of this story.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it!


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